First Steps

The movie �Chocolat�? Johnny Depp, Juliette Binoche� pouring chocolate onto a marble table, infusing cream with exotic flavours?

That�s what started a passionate hobby that has become Wild Patch Chocolates.

First Principles

Start with the finest ingredients, learn traditional methods from the experts, and taste food from around the world. Be passionate and a bit of a perfectionist - and when you've mastered that, you'll have to share it ... because you can't eat it all yourself!

Leave Things Out

We intentionally leave out all artificial flavours and preservatives. Our chocolates are designed to be made fresh and eaten fresh.

We also create products to suit dietary restrictions such as gluten-free.

Temper The Chocolate

Tempering chocolate is the process that gives chocolate its smooth mouth feel, beautiful shiney appearance and allows it to slip out of its mould, shrinking as it cools. There are several ways of tempering chocolate (including the use of a tempering machine to automate the whole process); at Wild Patch we only use traditional methods and temper our chocolate by hand. Here are two of the most common ways of tempering chocolate. The Tabliering Method requires the couverture to be melted to 45�C. Two-thirds of this is poured onto a marble or granite slab and stirred with a spatula, allowing it to cool evenly. When it has cooled to around 27�C, it is poured back into the tank and mixed with the remaining one-third melted couverture. This allows the chocolate to reach its working temperature of 29-31�C (28-29�C for white chocolate, 29-30�C for milk chocolate, and 30-31�C for dark chocolate). The Seeding Method used unmelted chocolate buds to drop the temperature of the melted chocolate and to 'seed' it with the correct crystals. Melt the couverture to 45�C, then add one-third of this amount in unmelted buds and stir. Test the temper by dipping the edge of a plastic scraper into the chocolate and leaving it on the bench to dry. The chocolate should set within a few minutes and have an even colour, without visible oily streaks (if there are streaks, this means the chocolate was too hot). You will learn to recognise the temperature of chocolate from its look (its viscosity or fluidity) and feel (touch a spoon or paddle pop stick into the chocolate and place against your lower lip). Tempering chocolate by hand, however, can be a tricky business - best learnt from a professional (see our Courses).

Devise Exquisite Fillings

 Equisite fillings are a whole other production. There are some great books around with recipes for basic ganache (generally made with cream, chocolate, glucose or inverted sugar and flavouring). Start with a recipe, try it out, modify it and apply the principles to other ingredients. You will only be limited by your imagination (and the success of your flavour combinations!). At Wild Patch Chocolates, we use fruit purees and concentrated extracts such as passionfruit, blood orange, wild strawberry and many other equisite ingredients. They are heated and poured over the chocolate to give the explosions of flavour our chocolates are known for (try our Passionfruit, Lime Jelly and Coconut, Strawberry and Balsamic Vinegar). Other complex flavours come from caramelising sugar in copper pots, steeping dried lavender flowers or rose petals in cream, or adding just the right amount of chilli oil to produce subtle ganache that is piped into chocolate shells or made into truffle balls (try our Smooth Caramel, Cappucino Cups and Chilli Chai). With no artificial preservatives, no artificial flavourings or commercial fillings, our chocolates are gluten-free. They are made fresh to be eaten fresh - usually within two weeks of delivery.

Select Only The Best

The principles for great chocolate making are common to all great food - start with the finest ingredients, learn traditional methods from the experts, and taste food from around the world. Be passionate (and a bit of a perfectionist) and when you�ve mastered that, you�ll have to share it � because you can�t eat it all yourself!